In the 70s cars would sometimes stall out in traffic but not on purpose. Youd push on the gas but the car wouldnt go. Horn honking frustration would ensue as the driver of the conked out car tried to get it going again.
Today undoing decades of refinement cars conk out on purpose at every red light and even in traffic. The moment they stop moving, the engine stops running. And its not just the engine that cuts off. Engine-driven accessories such as the air conditioning also cut off.
This isnt a defect. It is touted as a feature.
And its becoming de facto standard equipment in new cars not an option you can skip.
The feature is something called automatic engine stop/start, which can be handily acronymized as ASS. Its stated purpose is to save gas (and reduce the emissions of gas carbon dioxide) by killing the engine whenever the car isnt actually moving . . . along with every engine-driven accessory, like AC.
When the driver takes his foot off the brake, the engine automatically chuffs back to life with a noticeable paint shaker effect. But at least the AC and cool air comes back on.
This on-off cycling can happen a dozen or more times during each drive as many times as the car stops, so does the engine unless the driver turns the ASS off. But in most cars, the ASS is default on meaning the driver has to remember to turn it off each time he goes for a drive.
If he forgets, ASS is on and the engine will turn itself off.
The aggravation is compounded when the driver stops on purpose to park. He rolls into the spot, the engine automatically cuts off and the driver reflexively pushes the engine stop/start button (most new cars no longer have keyed ignition switches) to kill the engine, which is already off because of ASS.
And the engine comes back on.
Or more dangerously the driver forgets to push the stop/start button because ASS killed the engine. In a rush or just not paying close attention the driver leaves the parked car with the ignition on. After awhile, ASS automatically restarts the engine and fills the garage (and house) with carbon monoxide, permanently turning off people.
At least two dozen deaths associated with push-button ignition and ASS have been reported.
Its not something most buyers would willingly opt for and pay extra for. The fuel savings are slight on average less than 1 MPG overall vs. a car without ASS and the costs go beyond mere annoyance. The paint shaker effect of all that stopping and re-starting adds stress and distraction while the slight but perceptible delay moment it takes for the engine to restart when the light goes green or traffic starts moving adds delay.
Plus the aggravation of having to remember to turn the ASS off every time you go for a drive in order to avoid all of that.
There is also the cost of reduced battery life. And more expensive, higher-capacity batteries.
Even though its 2020, most cars still use the same basic 12 volt lead-acid batteries used to start cars back in the 60s. These batteries werent designed to re-start an engine a dozen or more times in one day. This subjects the battery to repetitive discharge/charge cycling, which is the key factor determining how long any battery will last before it begins to lose its ability to accept and retain a charge the same problem electric car batteries have.
A standard 12V car battery that would normally last six years wears out in five because of ASS. The replacement cost about $100 on average eats up a lot of the savings achieved by ASS leaving aside the increased cost of the car, because of ASS; the extra equipment that ASS involves, including a high-speed/heavy-duty starter motor and the higher-output alternator necessary to keep the battery charged so it can keep restarting the engine.
To avoid this or rather, to hide this some ASS-equipped cars are equipped from the factory with higher-performance batteries, including mild hybrid set-ups in which the battery doesnt propel the car but has the capacity to keep accessories running when the engine isnt and to repetitively restart the engine.
You pay extra for that, too. When you buy the car and when the higher-performance, higher-cost battery dies. Which it will, as happens to every battery ever made.
And for what?
An average new car has a 12 gallon tank; if the car averages 30 miles-per-gallon, it can go about 360 miles on a full tank. If ASS increases the cars mileage by 1 MPG to 31 MPG it can travel 372 miles on a tankful.
The difference is 12 miles which works out to a savings of about 55 cents per tankful (about a third of the cost of one gallon of regular unleaded at the current national average of about $1.70 per gallon).
Not counting the costs of potential asphyxiation.
Because it helps improve a car manufacturers Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) numbers. CAFE is another bureaucratic acronym, this time standing for the mandatory MPG minimums imposed on new cars by the federal government. Failure to achieve compliance with the fleet average minimums currently about 36 MPG on deck to rise to 38 by 2025 triggers gas guzzler taxes, which are passed on to car buyers.
Instead, the costs of ASS are passed on to buyers.
Because a 1 MPG or so improvement is almost meaningless on a per-car basis, to the cars owner. But it means a lot to the cars manufacturer when factored over tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of new cars built which is how the CAFE math is calculated.
ASS is sold as a feature but its just another cost of regulatory compliance.
There is another aspect of ASS to consider. A more sinister one.
ASS is another of the several slow-motion chokeholds being applied under the pretext of regulatory compliance that are actually meant to kill all cars that are not electric cars. Things like ASS make cars with engines rather than motors less and less pleasant to drive and more and more expensive to buy and own, the latter intended to push non-electric cars toward price-parity with EVs; the former meant to make EVs seem more pleasant to drive than ASS-hobbled non-EVs.
No paint shaker effect in a car without an engine and a motor thats always on whenever the car is.
ASS is ludicrous when gas costs less than it did in 1965 which is what it costs right now. But ASS is about saving another gas C02 and theres no end to saving that. Which is how theyll end cars that run on gas.
The engines will be turned off permanently.
Just as they are turning off everything else, Because Corona another gas job.
But thats another rant.
. . .
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